SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — According to preliminary data, West Virginia hunters harvested 11,314 birds during the spring turkey season, a slight increase over the 2019 harvest of 11,215. The 2020 spring turkey harvest is close to the five-year average of 11,344 and 9 percent above the 10-year average.
“We had a good harvest this year thanks to a great youth turkey season,” said Mike Peters, wild turkey biologist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. “The youth turkey season expanded to two days this year and it appears our young hunters took advantage of the additional opportunity.”
Youth hunters harvested 643 gobblers during the two days — 368 on Saturday and 275 on Sunday — representing a 37 percent increase over last year’s youth harvest. Those numbers are included in the table below with county totals.
Districts 4 and 5 reported slight harvest increases over last year’s totals. The remaining districts harvested slightly fewer birds than last year. District 1 harvested the most birds (2,749), followed by District 6 (2,284), District 5 (2,131), District 4 (1,617), District 3 (1,521) and District 2 (1,012).
The top five counties with the highest turkey harvest were Mason (457), Preston (434), Jackson (402), Wood (344) and Harrison (339) counties.
Spring harvest of wild turkeys in West Virginia, 2016-2020:
County 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Barbour 165 204 250 202 234
Brooke 78 100 174 118 131
Hancock 98 106 87 109 146
Harrison 286 328 440 347 339
Marion 192 257 330 298 289
Marshall 207 256 417 311 296
Monong 197 267 346 263 270
Ohio 111 113 145 145 130
Preston 371 475 555 455 434
Taylor 101 135 189 142 146
Tucker 90 97 89 102 86
Wetzel 196 244 396 270 248
Dist. I Subtotal
2,092 2,582 3,418 2,762 2,749
Berkeley 115 147 162 141 151
Grant 161 145 160 140 124
Hampshire170 184 166 203 176
Hardy 132 132 151 142 123
Jefferson 79 115 115 125 121
Mineral 134 133 148 121 113
Morgan 54 64 65 83 93
Pendleton 88 112 112 112 111
Dist. II Subtotal
933 1,032 1,079 1,067 1,012
Braxton 197 209 307 257 234
Clay 101 120 142 102 102
Lewis 211 249 289 233 250
Nicholas 330 311 287 260 265
Pocahontas144 142 113 155 109
Randolph 250 247 207 258 213
Upshur 228 302 335 297 255
Webster 156 151 129 100 93
Dist. III Subtotal
1,617 1,731 1,809 1,662 1,521
Fayette 292 278 247 257 289
Greenbrier308 269 225 254 248
McDowell 200 177 132 105 122
Mercer 176 192 150 129 174
Monroe 184 192 183 231 201
Raleigh 283 280 213 205 211
Summers 219 209 170 158 182
Wyoming 320 262 197 182 190
Dist. IV Subtotal
1,982 1,859 1,517 1,521 1,617
Boone 157 157 125 132 169
Cabell 114 176 125 147 182
Kanawha 285 320 308 296 309
Lincoln 215 229 158 173 218
Logan 181 165 157 141 172
Mason 378 448 469 465 457
Mingo 131 143 106 118 147
Putnam 210 268 235 236 287
Wayne 139 186 129 132 190
Dist. V Subtotal
1,810 2,092 1,812 1,840 2,131
Calhoun 145 164 190 164 147
Doddridge137 160 216 178 198
Gilmer 132 143 170 142 140
Jackson 302 408 460 447 402
Pleasants 80 88 122 124 109
Ritchie 216 264 327 285 283
Roane 231 256 280 258 252
Tyler 182 181 250 217 209
Wirt 174 205 230 186 200
Wood 328 380 407 362 344
Dist. VI Subtotal
1,927 2,249 2,652 2,363 2,284
State Total
10,361 11,545 12,287 11,215 11,314